PMP examination is an international qualification examination for people working in management. PMP exam has a total of 180 questions. You will get 230 minutes to complete the exam. The exam will be in English. Now let’s introduce the tips and tricks of how to answer the questions quickly when taking the PMP Exam.
In this article, there would be two parts. In the first part, we introduce some tips for how to take the exam. And in the second part, we would introduce some tricks of how to choose the right answer for some specific questions.
Tips for taking the PMP exam
PMP Exam Tip 1:
Reasonable allocation of time. The PMP Exam lasts almost 4 hours. Therefore, we should arrange rest time and question answering time. Normally, the PMP exam is divided into three parts. Each part contains 60 questions, and between every part, there would be a ten minutes rest time. A very critical point for answering questions is that you can not re-answer the questions of the previous part once you submit the answers and take the ten-minute break. For instance, if you had already answered the 60 questions of the first part, and had to click the submit button. You would then have ten minutes for resting. But it also means that you can not go back to the first part and change the answers to the previous questions. Therefore, you must carefully check your answers before each time you click the submit button.
PMP Exam Tip 2:
Read the difficult question twice. If you are taking the PMP exam in an aided language, be sure to read the English part for the second time. Many questions in the PMP Exam are scene reproduction. Regarding such questions, be sure to pay more attention to the key points in the case, such as project phase and project management knowledge, etc. In addition, candidates with good English can help understand by reviewing the English version of the questions.
PMP Exam Tip 3:
If you are taking a PMP exam with an aided language (for instance, Chinese), please read through the Chinese questions quickly. Do not entangle in a word or sentence, grasp keywords, and questions, guess the intention and test point of the questioner, and then answer the questions. Sometimes you can look directly at the last question with a question mark. It can help reduce unnecessary time-wasting.
PMP Exam Tip 4:
If it is a project management theory question, you should try to locate the specific process group, execution process, input or output, or tool to narrow the answer range and help you choose the correct answer.
PMP Exam Tip 5:
If the number of words of the option is not very long, or it looks easy to understand. You can judge the type of test questions from the options. The topics of project management vary, but there may be only a few answers.
Tricks for choosing the right answer in PMP Exam
Tricks for Chapter 1.
When you see “dependency” — find “project set management” in the option.
See “value maximization” – find “portfolio management” in the option
See “feasibility study” — find “business demonstration” in the option.
Tricks for Chapter 2.
See “the company has had similar projects” — find “organizational process assets” in the option.
See “framework”, “function” and “process” — find “project governance” in the options.
Tricks for Chapter 3.
If you see “allow independent decision making” — find “laissez-faire” in the option.
See “service commitment” and “focus on others” — find “servant leadership” in the options.
See “motivating others”, “confident” and “persuasive” — find “charismatic leadership” in the options.
Tricks for Chapter 4.
If there is “new project” and “project manager’s power and responsibility” — find “project charter” in the options.
See constraints (or assumptions) – find “assumptions log” in the options.
See “corrective action, preventive action, defect remedy, update” — find “change request” in the option.
See “completion of plan formulation” and “completion of articles of association” — find “approval” in the option.
See “new project manager” — find “project charter” in the option.
See “project completion” or “termination” — find “lessons learned” in the options.
See “someone is very experienced” — find “expert judgment” in the option.
Tricks for Chapter 5.
See “temporarily unable to decompose” and “incomplete information” — find “rolling planning” in the options.
See “exclusion”, “scope boundary” and “detailed description of deliverables” – find “project scope statement” in the options.
See “one-on-one” and “obtain confidential information” — find “interview” in the options.
See “understand expectations and attitudes” — find “focus group” in the option.
See “diverse audiences”, “rapid completion”, “scattered geographical location”, “suitable for statistical analysis” – find “questionnaire survey” in the options.
See “more than 50%” — find “most agree” in the option.
See “creative grouping” — find “affinity map” in the options.
See “voting arrangement” and “prioritization” — find “nominal group technology” in the options.
Tricks for Chapter 6.
See “low cost”, “less time-consuming” and “low accuracy” — find “analogy estimation” in the option.
See “statistical relationship between historical data”, “database” and “model” — find “parameter estimation” in the option.
See “modeling” and “calculating the possible progress results of the whole project” — find “simulation” in the options.
See “overtime”, “additional resources” and “minimum cost increase” — find “rush” in the options.
See “parallel development” — find “quick follow-up” in the option.
See “no reasonable reliability” and “provide accurate estimation”, and select “bottom-up estimation”.
Tricks for Chapter 7.
See “known unknown risks” – find “contingent reserve” in the option.
See “unknown risk” and “additional” — find “management reserve” in the option.
Tricks for Chapter 8.
See “root cause” — find “cause and effect diagram, Ishikawa diagram, fishbone diagram, and why-why analysis diagram” in the option.
See “upper and lower limits”, “limit value”, “process stability”, “predictable performance” — find “control chart” in the options.
See “the relationship between two factors” — find “scatter chart” in the option.
See “identify best practices”, “identify violations” and “improve process implementation” — find “management quality” and “audit” in the options.
See “value chain” and “process flow” — find “flow chart” in the options.
Tricks for Chapter 9.
See “exit”, “postpone until fully prepared” and “push to others” – find “retreat / avoid” in the options.
See “emphasize consistency” – find “mitigation / inclusion” in the option.
See “a certain degree of satisfaction” — find “compromise / mediation” in the option
See “open dialogue” and “reaching consensus” — find “cooperation / problem solving” in the options.
See “insufficient ability of team members” — find “provide training” in the option.
Tricks for Chapter 10.
See “virtual team” — find “communication management plan” or “planning communication” in the option.
See “real time” and “face-to-face” — find “interactive communication” in the options.
See “a lot of information” and “a wide audience” — find “pull communication” in the options.
Tricks for Chapter 11.
See “using new technologies or methods”, “high priority opportunities” and “most capable resources” – find “exploit” in the options.
See “establish emergency reserve”, “reserve time, funds and resources” and “regular review” – find “accept” in the options.
See “eliminate the cause of threat”, “extend the schedule”, “change the project strategy”, “narrow the scope” and “pull back to the critical value” – find “avoid” in the options.
Tricks for Chapter 12.
If you see “clear scope” and “minimum buyer risk” – find “fixed-price contract” in the option.
After seeing “long span of time” and “inflation” — find “total price plus economic price adjustment contract” in the option.
See “labor rate”, “material rate”, “unable to quickly define sow” — find “Time and Material contract (T & M)” in the option
Tricks for Chapter 13.
See “authority level” and “degree of concern” — find “power and interest grid” in the options.
